HIWA Recreation Centre

Social Good Award

Element Award — Environmental/Experiential

MJMA ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN IN COLLABORATION WITH HAUMI NZ LTD.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada | Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland, Aotearoa, New Zealand

The Hiwa Recreation Centre expresses the University’s commitment to student wellbeing by fostering a culturally inclusive and welcoming space. The graphic development integrates and overlays Māori culture. Referencing the importance of patterns in Māori culture—particularly, carvings and Tukutuku patterns found on woven latticework panels in a whare whakairo (traditional meeting house)—the graphic applications throughout the new facility celebrate the deep symbolism and stories these patterns hold. The Hiwa brand is based on pattern-making, symbolising the intertwined energy of the campus to ocean and land, history to present and people to place. Hiwa’s new identity serves as a beacon of inclusivity that binds culture and a sense of place to this new campus development.